The Puppet1 in my series
by charmedgal005
Summary: Phoebe becomes controlled by someone else. Please R


The Puppet  
  
By charemdgal005  
  
Disclaimer: No one is owned by me. Except for Cathy, who is mine. Everyone else belongs to some rich guy who is lucky for owning Charmed.  
  
Phoebe and Paige sat at the bar waiting for Piper, their older sister. Pipers club P3 was a big success, and often, Phoebe and Paige could never get a chance to talk to her. Phoebe sat at her store excited and nervous, and Paige was trying to get Phoebe to talk to her. But it was no use; Phoebe wasn't going to say anything without Piper there too.  
  
"Ok Phoebe, what was so important that you couldn't tell me later?" Asked Piper. Even while talking to her sisters, Piper was making drinks for her customers.  
  
"Well, as you know, Cole has been back for a while, and today, he took me out to lunch he proposed to me. I'm getting married!" Phoebe exclaimed. Her excitement that was bottled up for so long, was let go times three. The shouts of the three sisters echoed throughout the club. All the music stopped, no one was dancing, all eyes were on them. They stopped screaming, looked around, turned towards each other and giggled like little girls. The band started back up and the dancing resumed. Confused thoughts ran through the dancers' minds.  
  
"Congratulations! I don't think I have seen an odder pair! It was a match made in heaven, I think," Piper said, "Where is Cole anyway?"  
  
"Dodging some bounty hunters. Lots of them showed up this afternoon. It figures. I just *love* their timing." Phoebe said. Piper smiled. Her husband was her, and her sisters' whitelighter and his bosses also had bad timing.  
  
"Wow! All I need to do is find some normal guy, and I would have the most normal relationship. Piper you're married to a dead guy, Phoebe is engaged to a half-demon and a fugitive. Personally, I think this is soooo funny." Paige said.  
  
'Well, special guys for us normal gals," Laughed Phoebe. Piper had to return to work and Phoebe and Paige continued to talk until Piper had closed P3, and it was time to go home. It was five in the morning before the trio went to bed.  
  
"Hey sleepy. Want some coffee?" a perky Phoebe offered her sister.  
  
Paige looked over at the clock and saw it was ten in the morning, and said, "Phoebe, did you get any sleep last night? You were the last one up the stairs, come to think of it, I don't remember you even coming up last night."  
  
"Nope, I went over to the cemetery to tell Prue my good news, then while I was there, I decided to wait for Cole at the mausoleum. I left a 8, figuring that you guys would be wanting coffee."  
  
"Did he show?"  
  
"No but he has been gone for weeks at a time before, so a day isn't unusual." Phoebe said. She began to pour herself a cup of coffee when she suddenly sat down, on air. It looked as thought she was in some sort of trance. She started to pretend that she was eating something.  
  
"Phoebe?" Paige shook her hand in front of Phoebe's face. "Hello?!?! Phoebe!?!? Are you there?!?!" Paige was starting to yell and get slightly worried. "PHOEBE! PHOEBE! PIPER, I NEED YOUR HELP!" Frantically Piper came down the stairs. She heard Paige yelling at Phoebe.  
  
"What happened?" asked a frantic Piper.  
  
"I don't know! We were just talking when she suddenly got like that!"  
  
"Carol you are really pathetic, you know that? You are watching a show meant for six year olds!" Phoebe suddenly shouted. Her sudden talking startled her sisters.  
  
"She wasn't talking to us, because our name's are not Carol and the TV isn't on." Paige tried to reassure Piper.  
  
"Well then who is she talking about?" challenged Piper. Phoebe had stopped 'eating' and now looked like she was hitting her head on an invisible table muttering words that Piper and Paige couldn't make out.  
  
"I have a niece named Carol, but I don't think it has anything to do with this. Besides, Phoebe isn't even related to her." Paige said. She was getting a little bit scared. Her sister was acting very weird. When Paige got scared, she did two things, babble and orb.  
  
"How do you know that by blood we aren't distantly related to her?" Piper questioned.  
  
"Hello?" A masculine voice called throughout the manner.  
  
"Cole?" Piper asked. He followed her voice into the kitchen, where he saw his fiancé banging her head against an imaginary table.  
  
"Hello beautiful." He leaned over to give Phoebe a kiss, but Paige pulled him back before he could.  
  
"I don't think that she is herself today." She said.  
  
"So I've noticed. What's wrong with her?" Cole asked.  
  
"Your guess is as good as mine."  
  
Phoebe suddenly got up and started to walk, but she didn't get very far before running into the stove. It never even fazed her that there was a stove blocking her, she just kept on walking. It was a sight to see. While Piper ran over to re-direct her sister, Cole was looking in shock and Paige sat at the breakfast table laughing. But Piper's efforts were a failure. No sooner had Piper and Phoebe going in an in destructive path, did Phoebe change directions, twice. Phoebe was back running into the stove. This time, Phoebe didn't walk, but she pretended to climb stairs.  
  
"Phoebe, honey, you there?" Cole tried. But his efforts failed. Phoebe just kept on marching.  
  
"Cole can you please shimmer Phoebe into the living room where there is lees stuff to hurt herself on? Paige and I are going to check the Book." Piper commanded. She could tell that her younger sister was not playing around. As she and Paige went to the attic, the voices of Cole trying to talk to his fiancé, and Phoebe just ignoring him while she sang along to a song that only she could here rang through the house. "We have to think fast, Phoebe is going to hurt herself."  
  
Half-mindedly, Paige responded while staring out of the window, "It's really weird, it is as if she is a puppet."  
  
"THAT'S IT! She is a puppet! Who's? Cant be a demon, a demon would be having her kill us or something along those lines, the person may not even know that are controlling Phoebe." Piper babbled to no one in particular, but Paige was listening.  
  
"Is there anything in the book about, about um… puppets?" With that, Piper began to look through the Book of Shadows. But each page turned, lead to more disappointment. Finally, Piper and Paige gave up and went downstairs. When they arrived they saw a Phoebe sitting on the couch, as if watching something and two very tired men. One man was Cole and the other was Piper's husband and their white lighter, Leo.  
  
"Find anything?" Cole asked expectantly.  
  
"Nada, sorry. Maybe you guys could check around while Paige and I watch Phoebe?" Piper said.  
  
"Sure thing." Leo said. He kissed his wife and orbed out to ask the elders anything.  
  
"Will do. But you guys need to know that ummm… Phoebe thinks she is at the movies and she walked a long ways to get there. When the movie ends, your hands will be full." Cole warned. He shimmered out to see if anyone in the underworld knew something.  
  
"Ok. Now what do we do?" asked Paige.  
  
"You stay here and watch Phoebe, I'm going to call my manager and tell him that he will have to run the club tonight. The outlook doesn't not look good as far as getting to work tonight." Piper replied. With that she turned and left leaving Paige alone with Phoebe. Paige sat down next to Phoebe, and sat nervously. She knew that she was sitting next to her sisters, well at least her body, but Paige felt like she was sitting next to a total stranger.  
  
"He looks totally hot in that outfit." Phoebe leaned over to Paige and said that. Paige looked around only to see no one around.  
  
"What are you talking about Phoebe?" Asked Paige. "Wait a second, Phoebe can't hear me. She is probably talking to who ever she thinks she is sitting next to."  
  
It wasn't long before Phoebe stood up and stretched. "That was a good movie. I could see that one again and again." Phoebe said. After a short pause, Phoebe started to walk. Then said, "Oh yah."  
  
"Piper!" Paige called out frantically. "She's on the move!" Paige went running over to Phoebe and directed her away from the wall. Piper came running to help. Phoebe just kept on walking and having a conversation with herself.  
  
"Ummm… a little after three. What time do you have to be home?" Phoebe said. Piper looked at her watch. "Paige, it's only a little after two. This person doesn't live in this time zone. This might be harder that we originally thought." Piper commented.  
  
For the next couple of hours, Piper and Paige constantly had their hands full. Phoebe was almost always moving. TO Paige the whole day had been a humorous event. Piper and Paige just stopped Phoebe from sitting on mid air when Cole came back. "Well?" Piper prompted.  
  
"The only thing that is going on down there is the desire to kill you, but this is not the work of a demon." He said  
  
"I've got to cook dinner. It is pushing five thirty. And I'm hungry. I've eaten nothing since breakfast this morning." Piper said.  
  
"Pipe? Make sure that we can eat it while we are helping Phoebe." Reminded Paige.  
  
"Sure thing. Finger food it is." Piper went to the kitchen to see what she could make with the things already lying around the kitchen. "What to cook? What to cook?"  
  
"I never thought I would hear those words coming out of your mouth." Joked Leo, after he orbed in. He kissed his wife and then sat down at the table.  
  
"Well?"  
  
"Good news. It isn't a demon. Bad news, may be. Well ok. The truth is that Phoebe has a psychic connection with another psychic witch." Leo said. "The only way to stop this is to have the other witch and Phoebe to touch."  
  
"Great" Piper said sarcastically.  
  
"What do you mean honey?"  
  
"Well from what we have understood from Phoebe's one sided conversation, this other witch lives in a totally different city, different state, and a different time zone even!" Exclaimed Piper.  
  
"Do you have an idea on who it is?"  
  
"Nota clue!"  
  
"Well *they* don't know." Leo said. He left the kitchen leaving Piper alone to cook. In the living room, Paige and Cole were talking while Phoebe was 'eating'  
  
"She is acting like some one I know, but I just can't put my finger on who." Paige said.  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Leo as he walked into the living room too rejoin the others.  
  
"Oh hi, you're back." Paige said. "What did you find out?"  
  
"You first," Leo insisted.  
  
"No you could disprove or prove my theory."  
  
"Ok then, Phoebe is psychologically connected to a different witch. Phoebe sees what ever the other witch sees and Phoebe thinks that she is the other witch." Leo said. Paige opened her mouth to say something, but Cole beat her to the punch. "Well," Cole stated. Paige looked at him menacingly and Cole continued, "How do we break this?"  
  
"They have to touch." Leo said  
  
"As I was saying, I was right. Any way, before Leo came back, I fell like Phoebe is acting like someone, but I just can't put my finger on who exactly." Paige said.  
  
"Put the clues together." Suggested Cole. "She's acting like a teenager."  
  
Sarcastically, Paige said, "Well that helps. Everyone I know acts like a teenager."  
  
"Ok then."  
  
"She did call someone Carol this morning. I have a niece named Carol."  
  
"Is she a w-" Leo started, but Paige, anticipated what he was going to say and interrupted him. "I really don't think so. But I can't say for sure. I don't talk to my brother's family all that much. All I know is that his wife hates me, ant the have two daughters, Cathy and Carol. Neither of them I have seen in like five years. Cathy I do talk to occasionally on instant messenger. So I sort of know her."  
  
"Paige calm down. You're babbling. Why don't you call her?" Cole suggested.  
  
Paige took a deep breath then said "What?"  
  
"Call her."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Well, if it is her, then we would hear Phoebe talking to you."  
  
"Hum, I think Ill do it when she finishes eating."  
  
"Speaking of eating." Piper said. She came into the living room carrying a plate of pizza bagels.  
  
"Yummy." Paige said taking a bite of a bagel. "This isn't something you would normally cook, but you should cook these more often."  
  
"Ha, ha. It was easy and we could eat this while we protect Phoebe. Plus we needed to finish the bagels." Piper defended. "I could hear you guys talking in the other room. You guys developed a plan?"  
  
"It is a good one." Cole said.  
  
"Not really," Paige said.  
  
"Give yourself more credit Paige. If you were right about who it is, this is a really good plan." Leo said.  
  
"Ok." Piper said impatiently, "Get on with it."  
  
"Well, they think that it is my niece so when it appears that Phoebe is done eating, I am going to call her." Paige explained.  
  
"Apparently, you think that there is a loop hole."  
  
"I don't think that they are witches."  
  
Phoebe stood up and started to walk away. Paige jumped up to stop her and for the next couple of hours, Phoebe was constantly walking around. It took all of Cole, Leo, Piper, and Paige to keep her from running into the furniture. Paige's plan to call her niece was forgotten.  
  
"Finally!" Cole said when it was obvious that Phoebe had gone to bed. "But what do we do now?"  
  
Piper looked from Paige to Leo. Both looked at Phoebe and then to Cole. "We take watch." Cole said after several moments of an uneasy silence. He barely took his eyes off of Phoebe. "I'll go first."  
  
"Thank you Cole. What time should I take over?" Piper asked. Her tone told Cole that even if he didn't want her too, Piper was going to participate in the vigil.  
  
"Let's see, two and a half hours a piece. So Piper, at midnight it can be your turn." Cole instructed.  
  
"Ok. Thanks." Piper said.  
  
"I'll go next," Paige piped in. "Piper, I'll be down at 2:30"  
  
Leo, knowing that he was next simply said, "I'll be down at five."  
  
Piper, Leo and Paige started to head up stairs when a look of pure terror spread across Paige's face. Piper and Leo, who were following Paige, stopped dead in their tracks when Paige did.  
  
"Paige honey? What is it?" Piper asked soothingly.  
  
"I forgot to call Cathy!"  
  
"Do it in the morning," Leo said. "Think is not harmful to either witch, except when one bumps into something."  
  
"But we do need Phoebe, I mean in case a demon attacks or something." Piper said.  
  
"Not as much anymore. Especially now that we vanquished the source. The demons are afraid of you because you took out their "indestructible" leader." Cole reminded everyone.  
  
"Fine," Piper gave in. "But you have to call her first thing in the morning."  
  
"Ok. Leo, you have last watch don't you?" Paige asked. Leo nodded. "Then wake me up as soon as she wakes up." Again Leo nodded.  
  
It wasn't until six when Phoebe began to move around. Leo frantically called everyone awake and the pounding of feet running down the stairs startled Kit, their cat. Paige was the first one down the stairs. It was a wonder how she made it down the stairs without hurting herself. She was running down the stairs while pulling a sweater over her head.  
  
"Going to call Cathy." Paige yelled as she ran in to the kitchen, watching Leo's panicked, helpless face as she passed. By the time she was talking to Cathy, Piper and Cole had gotten downstairs and had begun to help Leo out.  
  
"Cathy, this is your Aunt Paige." Paige said. Piper and Leo, and Cole could hear Paige talking from the other room.  
  
"Hey Aunt Paige." Everyone threw their hands up in excitement as they heard Phoebe talking to Paige. Piper went running into the kitchen and gave Paige thumbs up sign. Paige mouthed "I know." And Piper went running back to the living room.  
  
"What are you doing today?" Paige asked, continuing her conversation with Cathy.  
  
"School." Cathy said in a mater of a fact tone.  
  
"Can you get out of it?"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"We know your secret." Paige said. There was a long and uneasy silence from the other end. Cathy didn't know what to say.  
  
"What do you mean 'we'?"  
  
"My sisters and I."  
  
"Wha- oh yeah. What do you think my secret is?"  
  
"You're a witch."  
  
"What?!?! How did you find out?"  
  
'PAIGE! Tell her to stop moving around!" Piper called from the living room. After much convincing, Paige was able to get Cathy from moving around so much. Then came the task of getting Cathy out of school. Paige was just glad that Cathy believed her and that she had never called in sick before. She tackled both obstacles with much grace.  
  
"We heard Paige." Piper said as Paige returned to the living room to explain.  
  
"Oh right. Cathy and her white lighter will be here in a second." Paige said.  
  
"You mean any minute now." Leo said as he watched Phoebe, still acting like Cathy, call out for her white lighter.  
  
"They're coming!" Paige said like a little child watching out the window for their grandparents. In a matter of seconds, Cathy and her white lighter were materializing in the Halliwells' living room.  
  
"Aunt Paige!" Cathy said. She took a step towards Paige when Piper shouted, "Don't Move!" Giving Piper a puzzled look, Cathy took the step backwards and said "'K,"  
  
"Before you do anything, we need you and Phoebe to touch." Page said. Cathy looked at Phoebe and jumped back in surprise as she noticed Phoebe moving in the same way as her. "Wow." Cathy said in amazement.  
  
"Yes, yes we are all amazed. We need you two to touch." Cole said impatiently. Cathy approached Phoebe, but Phoebe started to walk away form Cathy in the same movement. Cole, eyeing the problem turned Phoebe around so that when Cathy walked towards Phoebe, Phoebe would walk towards Cathy. Cathy and Phoebe, no facing each other, approached one another. When there was contact, Phoebe fell out of a deep trance. She fell backwards and was caught by Cole. She looked lovingly into his eyes and said "Thanks. Boy does it feel good to be me again." She lifted up her shirt to revel a large bruise on her stomach. "Ow. We need to do something to make that stove safer."  
  
"You mean you knew what was happening?" Leo asked. Links like these were rare, and Leo him self had never dealt with one before.  
  
"Yup. I tried so hard to get my strength enough so that I could tell you guys what was happening and to stop myself from running into things, but that link was just too strong for me." Phoebe answered.  
  
"Aunt Paige?" Cathy said.  
  
"Yeah?" Paige replied.  
  
"Is that all?"  
  
"Yep, but since you're excused for the whole day, why don't you hang out here? I want to talk to you. Haven't see you, or your sister, or your dad since you mother got all mad at me for burning that turkey and wouldn't let me in the house." Paige said. Upon seeing Piper and Phoebe's horrified face at the thought that Paige couldn't see her family because she burnt a turkey, Paige added, "but I'm sure that it went deeper than the turkey."  
  
"'K." Cathy said.  
  
"Cathy, these are my sisters Piper and Phoebe, Piper's husband and our white lighter, Leo and Phoebe's fiancé and a…" a threatening look from Phoebe told Paige to reword her thoughts, "a big help, Cole." Paige introduced.  
  
"Hey. This is my white lighter Matt." Cathy said. Matt glared at Leo glared right back. "Leo." Matt said.  
  
"Matt." Leo said.  
  
"Oh. Leo this is a side of you who I have never seen before." Piper said, very amused at her husband's aggressive side.  
  
"Really? I have." Phoebe said matter-a-factly.  
  
"When?" Piper questioned.  
  
"Soon after Daddy found out that Leo was a white lighter."  
  
"Oh right." Piper remembered.  
  
Cathy and Paige watched Leo and Matt glare at each other while Piper and Phoebe laughed at Matt and Leo as they remembered fond memories with much amusement. Cole was in the kitchen getting himself some coffee. Paige leaned over to Cathy and whispered, "Reminds me of the last time I was allowed over at Christmas." They giggled.  
  
"Only it was you and my mother." Cathy said back with a giggle. Piper and Phoebe stopped laughing,, and the room grew very quiet. You could hear the pitter-patter of Kit's feat ash she came down the stairs. Piper looked at her husband and sensing the strong tension between the two suggested, "Leo, honey, come help me make breakfast." For the first time since Matt arrived, Leo looked away and followed Piper into the kitchen. On their way to the kitchen, they passed Cole with a cup of coffee.  
  
Whispering into Phoebe's ear, Cole said. "That looked worse than when Prue discovered I was Balthazar." Phoebe, in retaliation elbowed Cole hard in the ribs. "Owww." Cole complained.  
  
Cathy, also noticing the awkwardness between Matt and Leo asked, "What was that all about?"  
  
"Nothing." Matt said.  
  
"Cathy, can I please talk to you for a minute?" Paige asked, pulling her into the dining room.  
  
"Your moms not a witch is she? We sort of got a half sided conversation with her yesterday. Only we got your half." Paige said.  
  
"Sorry. You got the I've-got-too-much-homework-to-go-to-martial-arts- class-argument. No, you're right, my moms not a witch. Is that all?"  
  
"No, then it is your dad?"  
  
"Come on Aunt Paige. He is your brother! He is not a witch."  
  
"Yeah but Mike lived in the house for a year before he went to college. I was only a year old then. So if your mom's not the witch, and your dad's not the witch, then how are you a witch?"  
  
"Long story."  
  
"You don't have school. Speak!" Paige ordered and sat down.  
  
"Fine. My mom was once a witch. While a witch I was born to my mom and dad. Before Carol was born my mom was forced to give up her powers to a warlock, or he would kill me. She did. Then, without knowing it, I blew him up and somehow received his powers and my mom's powers, making me the most powerful witch, next to the Charmed Ones. Now here I am and am attacked by demons on a monthly basis all wanting to destroy me. What's your story?"  
  
"Half witch half, white lighter. You know I'm adopted, and Piper and Phoebe are my half sisters on the witch side, and not the white lighter side. Prue is their dead full sister, and they didn't know about me until after Prue's death, and I kind of replaced her as the third Charmed One. Together we are the Charmed Ones. And you are lucky demons only attack on a monthly basis. We're attacked on a weekly basis."  
  
"Wow! The four most powerful witches under one roof. How often does that happen?"  
  
Cathy and Paige returned to the living room where Phoebe and Cole were talking to Matt, who was sitting nervously.  
  
"Phoebe, can I talk to you in the kitchen. I need to talk to you and Pipe for a sec?"  
  
"Sure." The two left for the kitchen. What they saw in front of them made them first gasp then turn around. "I think we should have knocked first." Phoebe said. They turned around and talked loudly the rest of the way to the kitchen. They knocked before entering, and upon entering saw a guilt looking Piper and Leo hurrying apart.  
  
"I'm not going to even ask." Phoebe said.  
  
"What's up?" Piper asked.  
  
"Ok. Cathy just told me something that made me wonder. What about her moving in with us? It could really help her a lot. She would learn a lot from us."  
  
"Why?" Phoebe asked.  
  
"Long story. To cut it short, she is the most powerful single witch without an older witch role model. So who better to be a witch role model than the Charmed Ones?"  
  
"Now this all makes sense." Piper said.  
  
"What do you mean?" Phoebe asked. Piper looked over to Leo who was shaking her head no furiously.  
  
"You know what, It's nothing. Never mind."  
  
"Ok." Phoebe said.  
  
"If you don't want to agree with this, it is totally cool. It was just and idea that is out there. And despite the bad history between her mother and I, I think her mother will let her because she seems to really want Cathy to be a good witch." Paige said. Piper and Phoebe looked in deep thought.  
  
"I don't see why not." Phoebe said.  
  
"Sure. But lets try to make this temporary arrangement." Piper said. She knew that anyone who hung around them too long, usually died. Andy and Prue were the ones that stuck out in her mind the most. Paige jumped up and gave both her older sisters a great big hug.  
  
"Thanx you guys!"  
  
A few days later, Paige, Piper, and Phoebe were sitting at P3.  
  
"Cathy get here on Saturday. I'll pick her up at the airport and everything. You guys can just, um, do what ever." Paige said.  
  
"Thank you Paige," Phoebe said. "That gives me and Cole some time alone. We have much to talk about."  
  
"Have you guys selected a date yet?" Piper asked.  
  
"No, I want a winter date, but Cole is thinking about something in the fall." Phoebe said.  
  
"So a long engagement?" Paige asked.  
  
"Considering it's early January, that's the goal." Phoebe said.  
  
"Piper, Phoebe, and Paige sat happily at P3 eagerly anticipating both Cathy's arrival and Phoebe's wedding. 


End file.
